Donna DeShaw

May 19, 2014

1945-2014

Donna DeShaw, 68, of Carroll, Iowa, passed away on Friday, May 16, 2014, at St. Anthony Regional Hospital in Carroll, after losing her courageous battle with stage four ovarian cancer that began when she was diagnosed last September.

A celebration of life will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 21, at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Carroll with Father Timothy Johnson officiating.

Casket bearers will be Fred Zmolek, Donna Zmolek, Mitch Hagge, Mary Bernabe, Cheryle Clausman and C.J. Niles. Honorary casket bearers will be June Langenfeld, Annette French, Mary Zmolek, John Zmolek and Terri Kramer. The staff at St. Anthony Regional Hospital Rehab Department and Donna's Carroll PEO Chapter NS sisters will form an honor guard. Music will be by Rebecca Windschitl, Jake Gute and Anna Havermann Private family burial will be at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Carroll. The family requests that in lieu of flowers memorials be left at the funeral home or the church and will be directed to St. Anthony Patient CARE Channel Project, New Hope Village Staff Development Fund, Iowa Speech Language Hearing Association Foundation and the PEO Elf Fund.

Friends may call after 4 p.m. Tuesday at Dahn and Woodhouse Funeral Home in Carroll where there will be a prayer service at 6:30 p.m. led by Peg Scheidt followed by a PEO service. Music will be by Rebecca Windschitl, Jake Gute and Jane Heithoff. The casket will be moved to Holy Spirit Church at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday when visitation will resume.

Online condolences may be left for Donna's family at www.dahnandwoodhouse.com.

Donna Lue Zmolek, daughter of Donald and Luella Zmolek, was born on Dec. 7, 1945, in Waterloo, Iowa. She graduated from Dike High School in 1963 and then attended State College of Iowa. She graduated in August 1966 with a B.A. in speech correction. In June 1971 she obtained her pilot's license, while working toward earning a master's degree in speech pathology in 1974 from UNI. Her first position was as a school speech clinician for Hamilton County in Webster City, Iowa, from 1966-1968. She moved to Carroll from Webster City when she married Paul DeShaw on Aug. 2, 1968. She took a speech clinician position serving parochial schools in Carroll under a Title I program through Carroll Community School District. Her other school speech clinician positions included Polk County, Greene County, AEA 5 and AEA 11.

In 1982, she began her private practice, Services in Speech, serving area medical facilities and residential facilities for the handicapped as a speech pathologist. In October 1983, she received the Award of Fellowship from the Iowa Speech Language Hearing Association. She served on several community and professional boards, including the Carroll Library Board of Trustees for 12 years. She also served in several capacities for almost 20 years on the Iowa Speech Language Hearing Association Board, including serving as president from 1996-998. Donna thoroughly enjoyed helping her patients and after a very fulfilling career, she retired in December 2010 to pursue her other interests.

After taking a master gardening class, Donna became a longtime avid gardener and was active in the Carroll PEO Chapter NS. In 2012, Donna and Paul were blessed with three grandchildren within six weeks. Donna spent several months at Mayo Clinic with her daughter caring for the twins and made a few trips to care for Cordelia. Donna enjoyed every minute she had with her grandchildren and was so thankful for the time they had together.